Category Archives: Taos

On our little getaway weekend in December…we visited Taos to go skiing. My first time ever to ski…I was excited and did well!! We stayed 2 nights and decided to stay at the lovely El Monte Sagrado (Marriott) in downtown Taos. What a beautiful place to stay!! We had booked a standard room…which was excellent! But as I walked around the hotel..I can see some people checking into their rooms…I gazed inside and was amazed!!! If you have the extra cash..I saw some super cool rooms!! I checked the site and they call them Casita’s. Wow! Decorated in Southwest style and designed perfectly! There are only 84 rooms..so check online if visiting.

It had snowed the day before and we built some snowmen out in this courtyard. The view above was taken the next day from the courtyard. I loved the little stream traveling through the hotel grounds. Gotta love hotels like this. I don’t make hotel HDR’s often…but this Marriott was deserving! I would surely stay here again anytime! We caught a shuttle to the mountains for skiing and had a blast!

From the plains of Taos, New Mexico…here is an Infrared photo with the Pixel Bender effect put on it! Hope you can try this cool free plug-in from Adobe! CS5 is needed. Not sure if you can use CS4. You may have to be a techie to figure that one out. It creates this neat painterly look. Can’t beat a free plug in!!! Check it out here….Pixel Bender

This photo above is of the Rio Grande Gorge in Taos, New Mexico. I woke my family up early as I wanted to take a drive out of town to see the fantastic sight! Just only 15 minutes north of the town of Taos is this gorge. I did not know what to expect. I was windy and a bit chilly…so the walk out to the middle of the bridge overlooking this view was tough! I held onto my hat and steadied my tripod.

I’ll have an HDR soon..but only processed this IR shot first. In B&W..it looks cool! Even that mountain range in the background is interesting. I enjoyed our stay in Taos! A cute artsy town and a great place to ski! It is snowing all over the east coast today…hope you had a Merry XMas!

Info from the web: The Rio Grande Gorge runs from northwest to southeast of Taos, New Mexico, through the basalt flows of the Taos Plateau volcanic field. The gorge depth is 800 feet just south of the Gorge Bridge, which spans the gorge ten miles northwest of Taos. The gorge is knownfor its world class white water (up to Class V), steep pocketed rock climbing, and many ancient and beautiful petroglyphs. Petroglyphs in the gorge have inspired many of the prints and patterns on trinkets, mugs, and t-shirts sold in local shops. At the bottom of the gorge, the Rio Grande is flanked by hidden hot springs and many ruins. The former Chili Line also ran here.